Interceptor Entertainment's reboot of the 90's classic Rise of the Triad accomplished what it intended to do: update an old-school FPS. Lots of bouncing, collecting, and exploding. It also had a good bit of crashing too, but that wasn't supposed to happen. To fix that, Interceptor's releasing a huge patch to cover more than 200 bugs and improve overall performance. As an apology, it's also releasing five multiplayer maps along with it, all for free.

You know your patch is serious when it comes with its own trailer. It shows a fly-through of each of the five new maps. They look pretty enough, but chances are the only time you'll slow down enough to notice is when your gibs cease bouncing. "Dunes of Hazzard" is set on a desert outpost and looks to have some wide-open spaces. "You Mist" lets you defile a pseudo-Nazi temple and looks like it could be a level in Thief. Both "Testing Tube" and "A Dish Served Hot" keep the industrial aesthetic going with various bunkers. "Skyfall", however, finally brings a floating Quake 3-like map to the mix. To enjoy these new offerings, there's both a new map browser and playlist feature to help you find the right game.

Of course, none of that matters much if the game doesn't run. That's where the other half of ROTT 1.1 comes in. The fixes change everything from level specific bugs to general balance. For example, almost every player has had their speed lowered, both for balance and "better jump control". If that's still too fast, a walk button has been added (which should help those murderous platforming sections). The amount of blood that sprays out of gibs has been capped, so that sweet firebomb you just landed won't wreck your FPS as well. However, the Bouncy Castle map and ridiculous boss fights remain, forever taunting my lack of skills.

Great news to hear. I'd been holding off playing much of RoTT (as much as I love it) so that I could enjoy the game with a nice, smooth framerate. Here's to hoping it really is the salve to what ails so many of us that bought the game.